The Revenant
Extreme cold; horrific bear attacks; eating raw liver. If this raw revenge western doesn't win Leonardo DiCaprio an Oscar, nothing will.
What a preposterously enjoyable film DiCaprio and his director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, have cooked up – a glistening, gut-wrenching wilderness concerto grosso, drunk on blockbuster quantities of self-importance and with the coppery tang of machismo pricking on its palate. The Revenant is the embellished true story of a 19th-century fur trapper, Hugh Glass, who endures a savage bear attack and the death of his son at the hands of a fellow frontiersman – then claws his way across thousands of miles of frozen rock in order to settle the score.
By “he”, “him” and “his”, I mean DiCaprio’s character – but to an extent I also mean DiCaprio, because part of the fun of watching The Revenant is knowing its cast and crew went through hell to make it. If you’ve read any coverage of the film, you’ll be familiar with the on-set horror stories: the perishing cold, the miserable cross-country tramps to remote locations, Iñárritu’s temper-fraying, schedule-destroying insistence on shooting only with the available natural light.
Great film has the power to convey the unimaginable. We sit in the comfort of a darkened theater or our living room and watch protagonists suffer through physical and emotional pain that most of us can’t really comprehend. Too often, these endurance tests feel manipulative or, even worse, false. We’re smart enough to “see the strings” being pulled, and the actor and set never fades away into the character and condition. What’s remarkable about Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s “The Revenant” is how effectively it transports us to another time and place, while always maintaining its worth as a piece of visual art. You don’t just watch “The Revenant,” you experience it. You walk out of it exhausted, impressed with the overall quality of the filmmaking and a little more grateful for the creature comforts of your life.
“Pain is temporary, but a film is forever,” Iñárritu said when collecting a Golden Globe for Best Director last week. He’s absolutely right, but forever isn’t a concept The Revenant has any time for. It’s two and a half hours of beautiful, visceral present – a film that’s chasing transcendence and wants it now, now, now.
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